Gov. Asa Hutchinson and state Sen. Jonathan Dismang of Beebe once worried me as right-wing menaces.
It turned out I worried too much--then, if not now.
Those judgments of Hutchinson and Dismang reflected a different time, years ago in Dismang's case and decades in Hutchinson's.
They were matters of circumstance, considering that minority- party figures tend to behave in more insurgent and incendiary ways when they're on the outside looking in.
Once in power, both these men stepped up to blend conservatism with the responsibility of governing.
It can be done. Still. Even now.
We've seen Hutchinson's pragmatism as governor that leaves liberals still cold but now has the modern-day Trumpified versions of conservatives calling him a relic.
As a young state senator in a new GOP majority, Dismang led the way a decade ago in fashioning the private-option form of Medicaid expansion. It's only the best thing state government has done in decades.
You'll remember that a smart, moderate, pragmatic Democratic governor named Mike Beebe beheld this conservative notion of private premium support rather than direct government insurance and said, hey, that's some smart stuff even if from a young Republican, both as policy and politics. Count me in, he said. It was nationally innovative, right here in Arkansas.
People accuse me of longing for the Clinton '80s. The fact is that I pine for the Beebe-Dismang '00s.
So, today, the measured approaches to the virus crisis of Hutchinson and Dismang--probably Dismang more than Hutchinson--provide our only hope for responsible public health policy on mask options for local schools. Only their narrow path might provide local school districts a valuable tool.
The state should be grateful for Hutchinson's willingness to call a special session to try to repeal the ban on school mask mandates. We should appreciate his micro-message, which is that he favors the vaccine over mask mandates but that kids under 12 can't get vaccinated right now and an outright ban on mask mandates in schools denies local people the right to decide for themselves to protect their littlest ones.
We have no hope for a solution if Hutchinson doesn't call the session and present a reasonable outline for it.
But the political fact, which Hutchinson knows better than anyone, is that the lame-duck governor's persuading days are about over in this Legislature. He knows success depends on House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, Senate president pro tem Jimmy Hickey and Dismang, among a few others. They're the ones who must find a way to 51 votes in the House and 18 in the Senate, after which we can worry about how to pass the emergency clause to make the law effective before school starts.
So, on Saturday, Dismang came to the attempted rescue with a series of tweets designed to provide a sustainable path along the narrow one Hutchinson had opened.
Dismang wrote that he supported repealing the ban on school mask mandates because, without a local option, schools would have no recourse other than closure in the event of outbreak. And closure, he explained, would inconvenience working parents and their employers and thus endanger our vital return to economic normalcy.
Dismang was saying we should give our local schools the local option on mask mandates for the kids so that maybe the schools could help parents stay on the job so that our economy might continue to regenerate.
When you can't be sure public health would prevail when pitted against the economy, you'd best try to find a way to conjoin them.
It's a lot like the Medicaid expansion issue. Beebe, a veteran centrist Democrat confronted with new Republican legislative majorities, said it would be crazy for the state to turn down the Medicaid expansion money to help rural hospitals and the state budget.
Dismang and a couple of other smart young Republican legislators--David Sanders, now out of politics, and John Burris, now a lobbyist after losing a state Senate race for doing the right thing--knew that their colleagues didn't like being called crazy. They came up with an option.
Beebe was smart enough to say that's good work, guys, so move over and let me join you on this victory lap.
We shouldn't care who is on the track this time, just that there is a victory lap.
We don't want sick kids lined up waiting for beds to become available at Arkansas Children's Hospital. At the least, surely we want schools to have the tools to respond at home if we get to that desperate point, which is not exactly unlikely.
Pass this bill. Pass the emergency clause.
Give our schools at least the option to install fire extinguishers in case of fire, so to speak.
John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at [email protected]. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.